Most people would say bad for you, as this is what for the past decade we have been told from the medical scientists and doctors.
Calm down learn to relax, work less, take sometime out, have a holiday.
Yes, calming the body mind is good for you, but there are many times when you need stress, yes we all need stress, even plants need stress, it is good for the survival of the fittest to have to fight for what you want to achieve, but not constantly.
Sometimes you need to get going, you need to get your butt up and put things into action and you will not do that by putting yourself into a calm tranquil mind and say all will be OK “mañana”.
The ancient ways of Tai Chi teaches you to recognise when you need to activate the body mind and stir things up or calm the body mind letting things settle down.
Nature has developed a wonderful tool to use, our breath! we do this by connecting with our breath noticing it’s action and knowing how to control it, by either doing slow deep breaths with a short in breath and a longer out breath which turns things off calming the body mind, or a long deep in breath and a shorter out breath which turns things on setting the body mind up for action.
The main thing in understanding and controlling the breath is to know when to turn it up or down and then to trust and believe in what you are doing.
The breath is one thing you can control in an instant and change how your body mind feels and can control this very moment and this will have an effect on the next moment and the next. Believing in yourself and trusting in yourself, you can do it, stop, notice your breath, decide on the action and breath and believe.
Within the ancient art of Tai Chi we have various breathing techniques that are useful for various times in your daily life. It is not just the simple fact of learning to slow your breath down relax and your life will become tranquil and you will have no more problems to deal with.
Stress is wonderful tool, you need it, you just need to know how to control it and use the full benefits it has to give you, Tai Chi is a wonderful tool box of tools to help in making you and the people around you a happier, healthier fitter person for the good of the Universe.
Join a group of like minded people at the online Tai Chi class at www.etaichi.co.uk and subscribe to the FREE online workshop.
Listen to this Ted Talk by Kelly McGonigal.
How to make stress your friend
Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.